By Paul A. Reid, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
MARVIN TATE has been named as the new technical director at Wray And Nephew National Premier League (NPL) club Village United, replacing the fired Albert Mayr.
Richard McCoy, a senior executive at the Trelawny club confirmed Tate's appointment on Tuesday and said he was presented to the players and the rest of the executive at their training base at the Elleston-Wakeland Community Centre on Monday afternoon.
This will be the former Jamaica Football Federation's (JFF) deputy president's second stint at Village as he was in charge along with former coach Paul 'Tegat' Davis when they won the National A League and promotion to the NPL in the 2000 season. He stepped down from the position however as he returned to the classroom, G.C. Foster Sports College, where he pursued a Diploma in Physical Education.
Tate said that while he was happy to return to the club he helped guide to the NPL, he was yet to sit down with the coaching staff and "sort out the different responsibilities".
This would be done, he said, at a meeting of the staff on Saturday.
There will be no disruption of the programme, he added, as Edwin Alcock, who was the assistant to Mayr and was in charge of the team in their 1-1 draw against Reno on Sunday, would continue to prepare the team in the interim.
Tate, who also coached St. Ann club Brazil in the NPL and National A League, said he will take an even greater awareness of the game to his job and said what he learned at G.C. Foster has helped in equipping him to be a better coach.
He said it was not very hard to convince him to return to the Village coaching staff as he said the club is close to his heart and thinks of his return as "destiny", having helped shape the programme the club is still following.
Their strong finish in the NPL last season, their first at that level, was a surprise, he said, as "the team went further than many expected" adding that the goal was to go even further.
Winning the league this year was the first priority and a "a very real possibility" he said and then moving on to play regionally in the Caribbean Football Union's club championships.
While this bunch of players are "talented, they are not properly organised" and this, he said, was his "strong point" and where he could help most.
On the other hand, the team is still a fairly young one and has the will to play hard and win and another dramatic turnaround is not out of the question, Tate said.
Village were languishing near the bottom of the league last season under coach Allan Aarons but finished strongly and challenged for a semi-final place under Geoffrey Maxwell.
Maxwell opted to take the job at Tivoli Gardens at the start of this season.
